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Work with Student Consultants

Your organization can benefit from the expertise our graduate students are gaining during their two-year Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree program — at no cost to you. The goal of the program is to train and develop complete policy analysts – dedicated professionals with the skills needed for successful careers and the values needed to address important issues.

We average 65-75 incoming students each year, most with 2-4 years of prior work experience, including Peace Corps, Americorps, and Teach for America. Students complete:

Core coursework in economics, quantitative methods, political and policy analysis

Professional skill development including teamwork, written and oral communication, leadership, budgeting, and project management

Optional concentrations in Development Policy, Environment and Energy Policy, Health Policy, Global Policy, National Security, Population Studies, and Social Policy.

There are three structured ways to work with Sanford MPP students.

Spring Consulting Projects

“Sanford spring consulting teams produce research and information of similar or higher quality to products from our paid consultants—for free and on time.” —Philip Price, CFO, N.C. Dept. of Public Instruction

Every spring our first-year MPP students work in teams on real policy problems faced by actual organizations and agencies at no charge to the clients. Clients can be public or private, nonprofit or for-profit, with no geographic limitations.

Small student teams of 4-5 students conduct interviews, complete data analyses, make site visits, research best practices and review scholarly literature, with each student devoting about 100 hours to the project. Experienced Sanford faculty members manage the project teams, review strategies, evaluate written reports, coach oral presentations, and assign grades.

Proposals are accepted throughout the fall semester and selected by the students in early January. Students present results to clients in late March and submit a final written report in late April. Successful proposals will include a mix of research, analysis and decision-making.

Master’s Projects

Master’s Projects are year-long individual capstone projects completed by second year MPP students. Students spend the fall semester identifying a client and a policy question and completing background research. In the spring, they produce extensive high-quality reports overseen and graded by a faculty committee. Students use their master’s projects to demonstrate skills and knowledge to prospective employers.

"For my Master's Project, I analyzed statewide polling data and conducted interviews with women of color in seven N.C. counties to get a sense of how N.C. women feel about current state politics and recent legislative changes." —Marion Johnson MPP'14

a comprehensive economic impact analysis of the school system in Orange County, N.C.

financial analysis and recommendations for Medicaid expansion in North Carolina

We seek a small number of challenging projects for our second-year MPP students who are honing advanced skills in quantitative and qualitative analysis, financial impact assessment, program evaluation and policy writing. With student teams of 8-15, project scope can be broader and more sophisticated than the spring consulting projects. Sanford faculty can help you design your project to meet your needs and help our students build experience. Health, Education, International Development, National Security, and Budget and Finance are typically areas of strong student interest, but we welcome projects in all policy fields.

"Our team’s proposal for an innovative approach to Medicaid expansion in last fall's practicum class made us deal with the nitty-gritty details of the health care system. We prepared realistic cost estimates and enrollment projections, interviewed experts to determine the impact on providers, and formulated feasible recommendations for the N.C. General Assembly."—Andrew Olson MPP'14